Detail

Area

China (Mainland)

Commodity Group

Rice

Commodity

All

Date

01/10/2013

Policy Category

Trade

Policy Instrument

Import agreement

Description

A memorandum of understanding signed between the state trading enterprise, COFCO, and Thai traders to import 1.0 million tonnes of rice at market prices, over a period of five years. According to Thai officials, two separate agreements were also reached between the Chinese and Thai governments during the visit of Premier Li Keqiang to Thailand. The first would explore the possibility of shipping rice and other agricultural produce to China in return for Chinese investment on a high-speed railway system while, under a second memorandum of understanding, the Chinese government would have agreed to purchase 1.0 million tonnes of rice per year from Thailand for an indefinite period of time. Thai officials indicated that details of the last two agreements are still to be worked out, but they expect the first rice shipments to China to take place by January 2014.